Event Date: March 7, 2023 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm EST
Location: FSS 4004

Jessica Auchter’s talk will discuss her recent book, Global Corpse Politics: The Obscenity Taboo (Cambridge University Press, 2021). The talk will focus on the functioning of the obscenity taboo in global politics related to images of dead bodies. Why are some images of the dead widely circulated and others considered too obscene to be viewed? What is the role of regulatory mechanisms such as trigger warnings in framing certain images as obscene? Obscenity matters precisely because it is applied inconsistently, so decisions with regards to dead body images are always choices that tell us something about political identity and political communities. The talk will discuss examples ranging from images in humanitarianism to ISIS beheadings and the deaths of Qaddafi and bin Laden.

The event will be in English.

Jessica Auchter is Research Chair in Visual Culture in International Studies at the Graduate School of International Studies at Université Laval in Québec.

Moderators: 

Nisha Shah is an Associate Professor of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa.

Kevin McMillan is an Associate Professor of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa.